Chapter Director: Software Engineering

About us

At National Grid, we keep people connected and society moving. But it’s so much more than that. National Grid supplies us with the environment to make it happen. As we generate momentum in the energy transition for all, we don’t plan on leaving any of our customers in the dark. So, join us as a Chapter Leader, Software Engineering, and find your superpower.

National Grid is hiring a Chapter Director, Software Engineering for our Digital Platforms & Infrastructure Technology department in Warwick. 

What you'll do

As a Chapter Director, you'll lead the development of innovative capabilities and implement processes that align with organizational goals, drive performance, and assure quality. You'll create a positive work environment that motivates employees, supports their health and wellbeing, and establishes effective working relationships with suppliers for mutual benefit, all while achieving and maintaining compliance with national and international standards. Your leadership and guidance will empower individuals to reach their full potential and make a lasting impact on our vision.

You'll be responsible for leading and managing a collaborative, cross-functional group of software engineering professionals within a centralized IT organization. This role is critical for ensuring the optimal design, implementation, and support of advanced software design and engineering. You'll foster innovation, knowledge-sharing, and the continuous improvement of software engineering standards and best practices.Key responsibilities include the following:

Establish the right standards: 

• Define expected practices & guardrails and chapter member technical output based on industry best practices
• Ensure that software engineering aligns with National Grid’s future state blueprint and road map.
• Review & manage Chapter Lead performance

Develop the right skills:

• Map expected competencies & certifications against each role & level in the Chapter
• Design career path including performance expectations and promotion criteria
• Partner with Learning and Development teams to design targeted training & certification curriculum

Deliver the right capacity: 

• Track supply of and aggregate demand for Chapter resources 
• Collaborate with executive leadership to ensure Chapter members are allocated to the most impactful teams unlocking business value
• Collaborate with other Chapter Leads to facilitate career moves across Chapters for career growth & cross-training
• Develop a recruiting strategy for Chapter members and participate in recruiting process by making final hiring recommendations

Manage / deliver for internal and external stakeholders:

• Demonstrate subject matter expertise in all areas of development and innovation in Chapter domain, both internally and externally 
• Ensure Platform Leads and other stakeholders know what resources and knowledge are available to them
• Collaborate with executive leadership to ensure Chapter members are allocated to the most impactful Teams unlocking business value, orchestrating expansion and contraction based on prioritization

Software Engineering Focus:

• Facilitate collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and best practice adoption across the software engineering community
• Establish and promote frameworks and guidelines for the standardization of software architecture, design principles, and operational procedures
• Organize workshops, seminars, and training programs to upskill software engineering teams and keep them current on emerging trends
• Drive software development and engineering expertise within the Chapter, ensuring alignment with established software development and engineering standards

About you

• Experience in leading cross-functional Software Engineering teams, with a strong focus in establishing engineering standards, developing team skills, and driving continuous improvement.
• Proven analytical skills and experience making decisions based on hard and soft data
• Experience with resource planning and allocation within and across organizations
• Proficiency in developing custom business applications and creating interactive visualizations for data analysis
• GitHub Knowledge of integrated development tools for planning, tracking, and delivering software projects.
• Visual Studio Code and Git: Proficiency in using lightweight code editors and distributed version control systems for collaborative development
• Skills in automating infrastructure using Terraform, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, Azure PowerShell, and Azure CLI, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)
• Understanding of software engineering best practices, object-oriented programming, and design patterns
• Experience working in Agile software development methodologies – SAFE, Scrum, Kanban, etc
• Management of JavaScript, C#, SQL, and PowerShell for software development tasks
• Understanding of cloud computing concepts and experience working with Azure services such as virtual machines, storage, and network

What you'll get

A competitive salary between £85,000 - £105,000  dependent on capability

As well as your base salary, you will receive a company car or allowance, a bonus of up to 20% of your salary for stretch performance and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%. You will also have access to a number of flexible benefits such as a share incentive plan, a salary sacrifice technology scheme, support via the employee assistance line and matched charity giving to name a few.

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